Much ado about nothing

IT IS NOT a matter to lose sleep over, but to the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC), it is a big deal. The order in which the 2019 elections should be held is assuming a life and death dimension among the party’s stalwarts. Ordinarily, the party caucus should have ironed out the matter, but from the look of things, the falcon can no longer hear the falconer. The party leadership and its members who dominate the National Assembly have been working at cross purposes since 2015.

In all honesty, a simple matter like this should not cause a rift between the executive and the legislature considering that APC is the party in power. As the majority in the National Assembly, the party should be using its number to get its way. Unfortunately, it is not doing that. Rather than work as a team, the executive and the legislature have been at each other’s throat. Since the party came to power in 2015, it has been one problem or the other between both arms of government.

No one can really pinpoint the cause of the problem, but some suggest that it has its root in those who emerged as principal officers of the National Assembly contrary to the wish of the party. It has been about three years since then. So, isn’t that enough time for the party to forget the past and move forward? President Muhammadu Buhari was so concerned with the problem that he raised a panel headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to see how the relationship between the two arms of government could become smooth. One year after the panel came into being, nothing seems to have changed.

Did the panel achieve results? It didn’t. If it did, the President won’t have complained last month that the frosty relationship between the executive and the legislature was slowing down government. If care is not taking, it may affect next year’s elections. In the not too distant past, the order of elections was nothing to worry about. Until a few years ago, the presidential election had always been held last, without anybody raising an eyebrow. Constitutionally, the electoral umpire fixes the dates of the elections and decides in which order they would come.

But because of the cold relationship between the National Assembly and the Presidency, the lawmakers have changed the order of elections by amending Section 25 (i) of the Electoral Act. Under the amendment, the National Assembly poll is billed to come first in the new sequence. Before the amendment, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had fixed dates for the 2019 polls, with the Presidential and National Assembly coming up on February 16 and the Governorship and Houses of Assembly, March 2.

Is the National Assembly right to have altered the order of elections? Has it not overreached itself in taking this action? The National Assembly, without doubt, can amend the electoral law, but it cannot fix dates for, nor organise, elections. These are jobs within the purview of INEC. Having said this, then why the noise over the amendment of Section 25 (i) of the electoral law? It is all because of fear and suspicion that some people may want to stop some National Assembly members from contesting the 2019 elections. And where those who are not favoured manage to get their party’s ticket, it is believed, everything will be done to make them lose the election. Who loses in that situation? The party or the contestant?

Ever before the amended bill got to the President, some had said he would not assent to it. Truly, he has vetoed the bill. Giving the reasons for his action in a letter to Senate President Bukola Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Buhari said the lawmakers might have infringed on the “constitutionally guaranteed discretion of INEC to organise, undertake and supervise all elections provided for in Section 15 (a) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution’’. ‘’The amendment to Section 138 of the principal act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates unduly limits the rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair electoral review process’’, the President added.

He went on : ‘’The amendments to Section 152 (3 – 5) of the principal act may raise constitutional issue over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over local government elections’’. The National Assembly has not formally reacted to the President’s veto, but it is certain that it will pay him back in kind. The President took his action under Section 58 (4) of the Constitution,which states: Where a bill is presented to the President for assent, he shall within 30 days thereof signify that he assents or he withholds assent. The lawmakers have shown that they feel strongly about this matter, with the way the Senate, especially, has dealt with those against the bill. It is therefore as sure as daylight that they will not allow this matter to end like this. I see them overriding the President’s veto, coming under Section 58 (5) of the Constitution, which stipulates :

Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-third majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required. It is just a matter of time before the National Assembly uses its power under the Constitution to get its way on this matter. At a time like this, we do not need this kind of feud. There are many governance issues contending for the attention of the executive and the legislature. The nation does not need this fight over the order of elections, which is borne out of the fear that there are plans to stop some people from returning to the National Assembly in 2019.

Is their personal interest more important than the national interest? They should put themselves in the position of the people they say they represent. How will they feel if the shoe was on the other foot? Governance is not about one’s self but the ability to do the people’s will. If it is true they represent us, they should show it in their deed.